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12/16/2004

Google's AdSense

Seems (seemed?) like a great idea ... make a little $ while enjoying the joys of blogging. However, it would appear that I have violated the Terms of Service in some fashion. The email informing me of this did not indicate which portion of the ToS I violated, nor was it a warning. My account was suspended.

If I knew what the problem was, I would certainly take effort to not repeat it - the $1-2/day average (I don't get that many page hits, and even fewer clicks on the ads) is not quite worth "cheating" (not that I am saying any amount of $ would justify or encourage that!).

... So, I have removed the AdSense block from the right and my dreams of *finally* making millions off of the net (or, atleast of having Riley's college partially subsidized :) ) have apparently been cruelly dashed. Unless LOTS of people shop Amazon through me (5% commission! w00t!) or, even better, voluntarily donate ~$5 (or more) to Riley's College fund I guess I will be forced to keep working at my day job. Curses!

I am still looking forward to hearing back from the fine (and possibly rich, have you seen their stock price!?) folks @ Google. If/when I do (assuming we are able to come to terms) I will happily place the block back over on the right and resume rakin' it(again - $1-2/day) in!

Sorry ... I just wanted to vent for a moment, please stay tuned for your regularly scheduled Internet, already in progress.

UPDATE:12/21/2004:I have corresponded with the overlords at Google; and there is apparently no appeal, no forgiveness and no 'second-chance'. Bah Humbug. A less honest person might simply go about opening another account with a different email address and different URL, however that person is not me ... nor do I have the time to dork around with this, even if I was so inclined. So I am now less enamored with a company I have always admired and thought well of - Forget Google. (And I guess I will need to just pay for Riley's college fund the old fashioned way ... send the wife to work in a few years :P.)

2 comments:

I put the Google code on my site earlier this week. In an email saying my site was approved (like I cared) they said that I cannot click on the ads or I would be getting a letter or worse - suspended. I have left the code for now but it concerns me that Google could place ads on my site that I dislike or find in poor taste. Even if I see an ad that I'm interested in, I can't go there. After 2200 impressions and 7 clicks no revenue for this old bear. I thought that I could generate a few bucks for St. Judes but at this rate I'll have to hit a million impressions before I get my first $100 check. Go figure. Love your site. Zeke from It Is What It Is.

I guess, perhaps, I should have read the ToS a bit closer. I have clicked on quite a few of my own ads ... I am interested in lots of things! (After sending my WTF letter to Google I thought about it more - and I also clicked on several links several times in different browsers - I run IE (several version on several machines), Mozilla, Portable-Firefox, etc. and was comparing load times, display quirks, etc.). Oh well ...

Note - I think you can filter the ads that show, but since you can't click on them to see if you disagree with their content you need to do some contortionist-like activities to get from here to there.

Thanks for the compliment, and back at you - I'm a reglar visitor of yours (found through BlogExplosion IIRC).